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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Paper Doll Nostalgia

Paper doll art by Mary Englebreit, published in the Home Companion Magazine

I love going to my grandmother's house for a lot of reasons, but one of them is pretty simple: her magazines. She always has the current issue of at least 7 or 8 home and garden magazines on her living room end tables, which is where I get my fix. One of my favorite magazines to flip through is The Home Companion, the source of the above paper doll inserts.

My grandmother saves each and every paper doll insert and sets it aside for when Izzy gets older (Izzy's my 2 year old daughter). Isn't that sweet?

The simple fun of paper dolls is enticing... definitely an activity I look forward to introducing to the kids (once they are dexterous enough to "cut along the dotted line," and can be trusted not to tear or eat the paper).

The above 6 dolls were drawn by Rae Owings, and were published February 1965 in Jack and Jill magazine (which I think is still in print today).

"We hurry through the so-called boring things in order to attend to that which we deem more important, interesting. Perhaps the final freedom will be a recognition that everything in every moment is essential and that nothing at all is 'important.' "--Helen M. Luke

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."--Miles Davis

"It may be human nature to see life in terms of highs and lows, but the bulk of it, really, is just navigating the vast, annoyance-flecked stretches in between--without inflating them into dramas."--Carolyn Hax"i thank you godfor most this amazing day; forthe leaping greenly spirits of treesand a blue truedream of sky;and for everythingwhich is naturalwhich is infintitewhich is yes."--e.e. cummings"The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective."--Henry David Thoureau

"I write as I might sew—cutting out the pieces, threading them to each other—not knowing until they are connected whether the garment might flow, hang, wrinkle or sag."--Twigg and Bug

Parenthood provides us a different ruler with which to measure our wealth.

The golden bees are making sweet honeyFrom all my old failures.--Antonio Machado